The Falls: A Mall Built Around Water
The Falls opened in 1980 on a 55-acre site in the Kendall area of Miami-Dade County. From the start, it was different from other shopping centers in South Florida.
It had no enclosed indoor corridors. Instead, it used one-level covered walkways that wound through tropical plants, crossed bridges, and ran beside interior lakes holding a million gallons of water.
Stores faced each other across those lakes instead of across carpeted hallways. The setting was warm and full of dense greenery, so the center felt more like a tropical garden with shops than a typical mall…